Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton has sharply criticized the Bush administration for failing to back an Israeli attack on Iran's developing nuclear facility. In an editorial in the Wall Street Journal, Bolton wrote that although a strike on Iran may not be able to wipe out the underground reactor, it will enable Israel and the Western world "to buy time" before it is too late to act at all.
"The Bush administration's last six months [of] pursuing its limp diplomatic efforts, plus six months of a new president getting his national security team and policies together" will give Tehran another year "to proceed unhindered to 'the point of no return,'" according to Bolton.
He said that more sanctions against Iran will "simply be too little, too late." Bolton admitted that an air strike is "highly risky and deeply unattractive," but might allow enough time for a change in the regime in Iran to alter Iran's plans to become a nuclear power. He warned that "the alternative is Iran with nuclear weapons, the most deeply unattractive alternative of all."
Bolton said that the United States faces a critical decision concerning an Israeli attack on Iran. "Israel sees clearly what the next 12 months will bring, which is why ongoing U.S.-Israeli consultations could be dispositive," he wrote.
"Instead of debating how much longer to continue five years of failed diplomacy, we should be intensively considering what cooperation the U.S. will extend to Israel before, during and after a strike on Iran…. At a minimum, we should place no obstacles in Israel's path, and facilitate its efforts where we can."
Bolton, who is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, ridiculed Democratic presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama for his calls for direct diplomacy with Iran, "as if stumbling on a new idea." Bolton's only praise was for Republican presidential candidate Senator John McCain, who has called for a workable defense missile system.